Gann Matsuda On The Hockey Writers: LA Kings’ Kyle Clifford Is Starting To Surpass Early Expectations

LOS ANGELES — Although the Los Angeles Kings have been rather inconsistent after a 12-3-0 start, they are now 6-3-1 in their last ten games, as of this writing.

The biggest reasons have been the superb play of goaltender Jonathan Quick and the more than solid play of Anze Kopitar, Dustin Brown and Justin Williams, who have combined for 13 goals and 21 assists for 34 points in the last ten games.

Kopitar has caught fire, scoring six goals and adding seven assists for 13 points, while Williams has tallied three goals with four assists for seven points. But the big gun over the last ten games has been Brown, who has scored four goals with eleven assists for 15 points.

Defenseman Drew Doughty, who has struggled offensively this season, also appears to be getting untracked, having scored a goal with seven assists during that span.

But even with their best players producing, the role players must chip in here and there with a timely goal, and the Kings have been getting just that lately…

Oh I know, I’ll admit its not fair by most anyone’s standards, I’m just looking at bottom line.

At the end of the day Clifford is winning games with us.

And although it may be crazy you can argue this team also had plenty of bottom 6 talent that Clifford wasn’t needed either. At some point you do have to play your way onto a roster…

Beside the point, but to clarify, I do understand that Schenn is having to develop at a more difficult role of a scoring forward compared to Clifford as a power forward, but still, you could argue its kind of relative for their skill sets (maybe not.) I’m just saying if you looked at our draft that year and had to pick a guy to be with us right now everyone hands down would have picked Schenn, the fact its Clifford isn’t a knock on Schenn as much to show really how far Clifford has come from obscurity, if that makes more sense.

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